Kepsa: Politics hurting economy

By Luke Anami

Wrangling within the Grand Coalition Government and premature campaigns ahead of the 2012 general elections is affecting business.

"Politicians should agree. They should not focus on who becomes President in 2012, but more about implementation of Vision 2030," said Vimal Shah, Director, Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) at a breakfast meeting with the Editors Guild in Nairobi, yesterday.

Continued debate on who should hold which office is reducing consumer confidence and driving away potential investors.

"Investors are wondering whether this is the right place to invest as we have adopted a tradition of wrangling every five years on who should lead," said Shah, who is also the MD of Bidco Oil. Kepsa expressed concern that the media has been tricked into playing along with politicians and in the process hurting economic growth.

"They call each other names at Press conferences just to get headlines," explained Shah adding: "This poisons public mood."

CATALYSTS FOR GROWTH

Industrialisation Assistant Minister Nderitu Muriithi said a survey indicated that Kenya’s economy performed better when political wrangling was non-existent.

"Experience has shown sound economic policies and harmony in Government are catalysts for economic growth. For instance, both business and consumer confidence were high in 2007, but dropped to the lowest in 2008 following post-election violence," Muriithi said.

Editors Guild chairman Macharia Gaitho exonerated the media, saying editors often agonise where to find good news.

"More often the Press is blamed for bad news even when the bad news is created by politicians," Gaitho said.

He challenged the private sector to set the agenda on development.